Committee recommends lawmaker raises

By Julie Bratvold

Herald Review

      ST. PAUL - After several years without a raise, many area lawmakers welcome - with some caution - an independent panel’s recommendation they get one.

      On Monday, a 16-member committee recommend pay increases for some of Minnesota’s most powerful office holders, including the governor, judges and state senators and representatives.
      “It’s probably about time for a raise,” said Sen. Tom Saxhaug, DFL-Grand Rapids. “If it’s extravagant, it’s not a good thing to do, but I think there are plenty of people who want to run for the Legislature and I think it’s important that they be compensated for the commitment.”

      “I’ve been here 11 years and we’ve only raised pay one time by 5 percent,” added Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. “At some point you have to keep up with inflationary increases. . .I do think a raise is due, but I’m not sure if the time is right.”

      The recommendation was made by the Compensation Council, which is a group of citizens and lawmakers appointed by the governor and the legislative leadership to make recommendations on compensation for several state government positions. Under the recommendation approved Monday, the governor’s salary would be raised from $120,303 to $137,869, while legislators would earn $45,497 instead the $31,140 they currently earn. The recommendation also stated that legislators should receive 33 percent of the governor’s salary each year. Judges would receive a 3 percent pay raise in 2005 in 2006, plus increases based on inflation in 2007 and 2008. The increases for the governor and legislators would not go into effect until 2007.
      “I would have no problem voting for it,” said Sen. Paul Koering, R-Fort Ripley. “When you have a chief executive ... the governor ... who is in charge of a $30 billion budget, I think $120,000 is not a whole lot when it comes to the responsibility he has.”
      A member of the Compensation Council, Rep. Tom Rukavina, DFL-Virginia, voted in favor of the recommendation, but admitted he was not completely happy with it. Rukavina noted that it is time for a raise for the governor (who has not seen a pay increase since 1998) and legislators (who haven’t had a raise since 1999), but he doesn’t think the judges deserve hefty raises every year. Judges have received a pay increase every year since 1997.
      “The judges have been more than taken care of because of the 40 or legislators around here who are lawyers always seem to take care of them,” Rukavina said. At the meeting Monday, he tried to make a motion that would change the recommendation so that judges would only get the same percentage increase as employees represented by AFSCME, the largest worker’s union in the state. The motion failed to garner enough votes from the council.

      Rep. Loren Solberg, DFL-Grand Rapids, was surprised the council recommended another pay raise for judges, but added that an increase for the governor and legislators should be considered. “I suppose the governor needs a raise,” he said. “We should be looking into it at least, but it’s not my highest priority.”

      For the pay increase to be voted on this session, a lawmaker would first have to introduce a bill in the Legislature. Gov. Tim Pawlenty has already expressed that he would not support the pay raises and some argue that authoring such legislation would be a risky move politically.

      However, area politicians dismissed that notion. “It does take a certain amount of courage for whoever makes the decision to do that,” Saxhaug said, “but I don’t think it’s political suicide.”
Solberg agreed. “Nobody’s been defeated or elected on that issue. I don’t think it’s as much of a political thing as some people make it out to be.”

      With the state currently suffering from a budget shortfall, area legislators realize that pay raises for judges and lawmakers might not sit well with constituents. “I think it would be hard to justify to the public in these hard fiscal times,” said Sen. Tom Bakk, DFL-Cook. “It seems like it would be hard to explain it to other state employees who have budget set-backs.”

      “I know it’s not very popular because we’re in a deficit situation,” Koering added. “We don’t want to get too excited about it, too out of hand. But I don’t know how we are going to have any quality people at all running for office if they have to leave their job and come down here. Thespeople have families to feed, too.”